It is an honor and joy to have Kris from Always Alleluia. She has been a great encourager, always full of grace and one that can be depended on to pray when in need. I am blessed to call her, friend. Will you make her feel at home while I am away?
Kris is just a girl who loves Jesus with her whole heart. She is a stay at home mom, MOPS Coordinator and an Advocate for Compassion International. Kris winds through her days, homeschooling 4 kids, and playing wife to her amazing husband.The floors are covered in crumbs and the washing machine never stops running (never!) but she counts each day as a gift! In her spare time (ha!) she writes, reads and plays with her camera.
How We Can Learn to Fly
“Maybe you have to know the darkness
before you can appreciate the light.”
Madeline L’Engle, A Ring Of Endless Light
I ignored their begging, as they asked repeatedly where we were going. I wanted to see the surprise and joy on their faces when we arrived, with no pre-concived notions about what the day held.
Just a handful of days left to see the butterfly exhibit–that’s what my friend tells me late in the afternoon, a couple of days earlier. So, on the hottest day of the summer (or so it seemed) we haul our six collective kids to the Conservatory to view this wonder.
The sun shone in all it’s late August glory, while the curl fell from my hair in the flat heat of the morning. The children clucked and cooed with eager anticipation.
I watched with as much wonder as my children, the butterflies emerging from their cocoons–in all their new splendor and color. Each one so brilliantly decorated, their beauty held my face to the Plexiglas, afraid to blink for missing something.
Butterflies flitted aimlessly inside the box, while others hung still, drying their wings, preparing for flight. Others still encased in cocoons twitched and shimmied, still hidden in transformation. Standing there, observing this mysterious miracle right before me, I held my breath at the artistic glory of YHWH–“God who creates, or causes to be”.
I can only breathe His name in the moments there, at the glass.
The transformation cycle I find myself in these days is rather confusing and difficult. Some days I’m so certain I’ve emerged and then others I still feel so very constrained, held tight in transition, still very much in process. I’m aching to unfurl wings, but there’s a time–a specified time for flight, and perhaps my cocoon still twitches steady as it hangs.
In Christ we’re made new and I remind my children of this as we drive home, after they’ve played and we’ve half melted in the heat of the afternoon. With the air blowing icy against our sweat soaked skin, they rest still in their seats, tired, but listening.
It seems I need the reminding more than they do though. Even with new wings, there’s a resting that must happen, a curing of sorts, in preparation for the flight ahead.
YHWH calls us quietly to Himself with a breath, with a whisper and what can we do but come?–let Him transform us, submit to the will of the one who created us.
Who knows what happens in the dark of the cocoon? The old vanishes and suddenly life is renewed, reborn–redesigned with new purpose.
The butterfly keeper tells us, “a butterfly lives approximately two weeks”.
That’s it?
I marvel and mourn the brevity of such a beautiful creature.
Just a breath–here only for a moment.
You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath. Psalm 39:5
What will we do with the moment He’s given us?
I’m thinking about this all the way home, thinking about my fumbled attempts at flight with uncured wings, too heavy and wet–fresh from the metamorphosis.
The momentary life of these delicate creatures reminds me of the fragility and beauty of my own transforming life.
First flights come after the rest. In Him we learn to abide, to be still, to wait–
We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not yet finished, but it is going on, this is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.” Martin Luther
You, therefore, must be perfect [growing into complete maturity of godliness in mind and character, having reached the proper height of virtue and integrity], as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:48 AMP
I am on my week of rest. I am so glad you are here. Thank you for visiting and welcoming Kris. Be sure and visit her at her blog, Always Alleluia where you can find more of her beautiful writing. Also find her on Facebook and Twitter.